Born in Brasso, Transylvania, Gyula Halász took the name of his birthplace as a pseudonym in l932, when he had lived in Paris for six years working as an illustrator and correspondent for Hungarian and German newspapers. In 1929, after accompanying the expatriate Hungarian photographer André Kertész on assignment, Brassaï decided to take up photography himself.

In this photograph, Brassaï's compositional skill is evident in the way he has framed his subjects, each lover's gaze reflected in a mirror. Such artifice and formal elegance, rather than the harsh realities of photographic realism, were of supreme importance to him. Indeed, this and many of his photographs were staged, leading to a complicity between photographer and subject that adds to the picture's sophistication and playfulness.